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FITZROY  CARRINGTON,  Editor 


LE   PERE  COROT 


BY 


ROBERT  J.  WICKENDEN 

Author  of  "Charles  Jacque,"  "Jean-Francois  Millet,"  "The  Men  of  1830, 
"Charles-Francois  Daublgny,"  etc.,  etc. 


PUBLISHED   FOR 
MUSEUM  OF  FINE  ARTS   BOSTON 

BY 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
4  Park  Street,  Boston  16  E.  40th  St.,  New  York 


LE   PERE   COROT 


BY 


ROBERT  J.  WICKENDEN 

Author  of"  Charles  Jacq,,e,"  "Jean-Fraiifois  Millet,"  >>  The 

Men  of  1830,"  "  Charles-Francois  Daubigny," 

etc.,  etc. 


PUBLISHED  FOR 

MUSEUM   OF   FINE  ARTS    BOSTON 

BY  HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

1914 


Copyright,  1912,  by 
FREDERICK  KEPPEL  &  Co. 

All  rights  reserved 


P       Cp,  /O 

Joe  f^hete  (Dotot 


H     & 


"LE  PERE  COROT" 

BY  EGBERT  J.  WICKENDEN 

[HE  title  of  "Pere,"  with  which  Corot  was 
invested  by  his  many  friends,  was  purely 
honorary,  for  he  was  never  wedded,  unless 
^*C  it  were  to  his  art,  and  his  pictures  were 
the  offspring  of  that  union. 

He  was  regarded  as  a  sort  of  spiritual  father  by 
the  many  artists  he  helped  and  advised,  and  he  might 
have  furnished  an  excellent  example  of  the  soul's  su- 
periority, for  as  his  body  grew  older,  his  spirit  seemed 
to  grow  younger,  and  his  later  pictures  are  as  fanci- 
ful and  poetic  as  his  earlier  ones  were  sober  and  se- 
vere. The  firmly  painted  view  of  the  Coliseum,  which 
holds  its  place  so  well  in  the  Gallery  of  Modern 
French  Art  at  the  Louvre,  was  done  in  his  thirtieth 
year.  Some  twenty-five  sittings  from  nature  were 
devoted  to  its  production,  and  during  one  of  these, 
Theodore  Aligny,  the  landscapist,  happened  to  sur- 
prise him.  Aligny  was  so  much  impressed  by  its  origi- 
nal and  serious  qualities,  that  on  returning  that  even- 
ing to  his  companions  at  the  Restaurant  della  Lepre, 
he  said :  ' '  Mes  amis,  Corot  is  our  master. ' ' 

Till  then,  Corot  had  been  considered  as  a  good  fel- 
low with  a  fine  voice,  but  as  an  indifferent  painter,  by 
the  circle  of  French  artists  then  in  Rome,  among 
whom  were  Leopold  Robert,  Edouard  Bertin,  Boilly, 

3 


Chenavard,  Aligny,  and  others,  while  Pierre  Guerin 
was  director  at  the  Villa  Medicis.  It  was  true  that 
Corot's  previous  education  in  art  had  been  of  a  some- 
what desultory  sort. 

He  was  born  at  Paris  on  the  29th  Messidor  of  year 
IV  of  the  Revolutionary  calendar,  corresponding  to 
the  17th  of  July,  1796,  of  our  own,  and  was  named 
Jean-Baptiste  Camille  by  his  parents,  who  kept  a  fash- 
ionable millinery  establishment,  presided  over  by  his 
mother,  at  the  corner  of  the  rue  du  Bac  and  the  Pont 
Royal.  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  then  a  young  general  in 
his  twenty-seventh  year,  after  crushing  the  last  serious 
Revolutionary  revolt,  had  married  Josephine  de  Beau- 
harnais  in  the  previous  March,  and  was  now  occupied 
with  his  famous  Italian  campaign.  A  reaction  had 
set  in,  induced  by  the  excesses  of  1793,  and  in  art  a 
pseudo-classic  severity  was  cultivated  by  David  and 
his  school,  which  blossomed  later  into  the  ornamental 
forms  of  the  First  Empire. 

In  this  atmosphere  the  young  Camille  grew  up, 
and  was  placed  successively  in  a  lycee  at  Rouen  till 
he  was  sixteen,  and  afterward  for  two  years  in  a  col- 
lege at  Poissy.  Then  came  his  father's  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  train  him  for  a  commercial  career. 

Though  his  tastes  and  tendencies  were  turned  to- 
ward art,  he  tried  as  a  dutiful  son  to  obey  the  paren- 
tal edict,  picking  up  what  instruction  was  possible 
and  practising  it  almost  by  stealth.  It  would  have 
been  much  more  helpful  to  his  predestined  vocation 
had  these  eight  long  years  been  devoted  to  a  thorough 
training  in  drawing  and  painting. 

But  at  last,  in  1822,  though  much  chagrined  and 
disappointed,  his  father  yielded,  allowing  him  some 


fifteen  hundred  francs  a  year,  or  about  twenty-five 
dollars  a  month,  as  a  pension. 

"All  right,"  said  his  father,  "do  as  you  think  best: 
seeing  you  wish  to  amuse  yourself,  do  so.  I  was  ready 
to  buy  you  a  fine  business  with  the  one  hundred  thou- 
sand francs  in  cash  which  I  shall  now  keep ! ' ' 

Corot's  heart,  however,  was  filled  with  gratitude, 
and  he  began  to  paint  at  once,  studying  with  Michal- 
lon,  a  brilliant  youth  whose  career  was  cut  short  by 
death  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  September,  1822. 
Though  himself  a  "classic"  by  education,  Michallon 
had  directed  his  pupil's  attention  to  the  study  of  na- 
ture, and  a  few  months  later  Corot  entered  the  studio 
of  Victor  Bertin,  where  he  remained  till  the  start  for 
Italy  in  December,  1825.  Inheriting  the  precise  and 
orderly  habits  of  the  French  bourgeoisie,  the  eight 
years  of  commercial  training  had  confirmed  him  to 
an  industrious  and  regular  disposition  of  his  time. 
As  he  said,  it  was  always  his  custom  when  in  town  to 
enter  his  studio  "at  three  minutes  to  eight"  every 
morning,  and  in  this  way  he  accomplished  a  prodi- 
gious amount  of  work.  He  came  of  Burgundian  stock, 
Corot's  grandfather  having  been  the  son  of  a  farmer 
at  Mussy-la-Fosse,  a  village  near  Semur  in  the  de- 
partment of  Cote  d'Or.  In  1860  he  went  down  there 
to  look  up  his  relatives,  and  was  delighted  to  find  many 
of  them.  ' '  The  country  is  filled, ' '  said  he,  ' '  with  good 
workers  who  bear  my  name ;  one  hears  nothing  in  the 
fields  but '  Hello,  Corot ! '  I  thought  they  were  calling 
me  and  it  seemed  as  if  I  were  in  my  own  family." 

This  origin  probably  accounted  for  Corot's  hercu- 
lean build  and  fresh,  farmer-like  appearance,  as  well 
as  for  his  innate  love  of  nature  and  the  life  of  the 


open  fields.  A  certain  stubborn  independence  is 
ascribed  to  the  French  countryman,  and  this  he  also 
possessed,  though  joined  with  remarkable  amiability. 

Corot's  respect  for  Greek  and  Italian  models  was 
strengthened  by  his  three  years'  residence  in  Italy, 
but  he  had  seen  the  works  of  Constable,  shown  at 
Paris  in  1824,  which  had  such  a  remarkable  effect  on 
French  painters,  suggesting  the  possibilities  that  lay 
in  their  own  immediate  surroundings.  Corot  profited 
by  both  of  these  influences,  though  the  " romantics" 
always  found  him  too  "classic,"  and  the  "classics" 
too  "romantic."  Thus  for  many  years  he  received 
no  favors  from  either  camp,  nor  did  the  public  appre- 
ciate an  art  so  peculiarly  personal  in  its  character. 
He  needed  an  ample  supply  of  stoicism  and  self-reli- 
ance to  carry  him  through  such  a  combination  of  en- 
mity and  indifference. 

Corot  was  well  into  the  fifties  before  material  suc- 
cess began  to  dawn  upon  him,  but  his  habits  were  fru- 
gal, needs  were  few,  and  kept  within  his  modest  in- 
come, while  love  for  nature  and  art  supplied  both 
courage  and  inspiration. 

It  took  more  than  twenty  years  for  the  artists  and 
public  to  realize  the  truth  of  Aligny's  words,  though 
they  were  no  empty  compliment  when  he  uttered 
them.  He  followed  them  up  with  advice  calculated  to 
compensate  for  Corot's  lack  of  early  training.  Al- 
though two  years  younger  than  Corot,  he  had  been 
through  the  academic  schools.  "If  it  pleases  you, 
Monsieur  Corot, ' '  he  said,  ' '  we  will  occasionally  work 
together ;  perhaps  there  is  something  I  can  teach  you, 
and  I  also  shall  certainly  be  the  gainer  in  your  com- 
pany. ' '  Corot  had  not  been  spoiled  by  expressed  ad- 

6 


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«       ^ 


1 


miration,  and  he  always  felt  grateful  to  Aligny  for 
the  needful  confidence  in  himself  with  which  these 
timely  words  and  acts  inspired  him. 

Fifty  years  later,  in  1874,  Aligny 's  remains  were 
carried  to  their  resting-place  in  Montparnasse  ceme- 
tery at  Paris.  At  the  dim  early  morning  hour  of  eight 
o'clock,  in  spite  of  a  wintry  snowT-storm,  Corot  was 
there,  although  then  seventy-eight  and  within  a  year 
of  his  own  demise.  Madame  Aligny,  who  was  also  pres- 
ent, begged  him  to  leave  and  to  avoid  longer  exposure 
to  such  inclement  weather,  but  he  insisted  on  remain- 
ing, and  later  in  the  day  said  to  his  friend  Monsieur 
Dumesnil,  who  relates  the  story,  "Ah,  it  is  finer  now 
than  it  was  at  the  cemetery  this  morning,  but  for  me  it 
was  a  duty,  a  sacred  debt. ' ' 

A  sense  of  self-control  and  an  almost  ascetic  severity 
of  treatment  pervade  much  of  Corot 's  earlier  work 
both  in  Italy  and  in  France,  but  this  careful  and  con- 
scientious study  of  nature  permitted  him  to  give  full 
scope  to  his  imaginative  faculties  later  on,  and  to  en- 
liven his  technique  with  a  lighter  and  more  feathery 
touch,  without  losing  the  indispensable  sense  of  basic 
form. 

Charles  Blanc,  who  had  followed  Corot 's  successive 
exhibits  at  the  Salon,  thus  summed  up  his  earlier  ca- 
reer: "During  fifteen  years  or  more  Corot  sought  for 
style  by  his  drawing,  by  large  lines  resolutely  ex- 
pressed, by  an  intentional  sobriety  of  detail.  He  chose 
well-grown  trees  of  regular  form,  smooth  rocks  with 
continuous  breaks;  he  opposed  to  bare  trunks,  grace- 
fully rounded  bouquets,  and  to  sparse  leafage,  thick 
bushy  growths.  He  brought  the  rigidity  of  pine-trees, 
straight  and  smooth  as  columns,  into  contrast  with  the 

8 


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«      "3 


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curves  of  supple  and  climbing  plants ;  the  flat,  tranquil 
contours  which  mark  the  horizon,  with  broken  and 
ravine-marked  foregrounds.  Nevertheless,  that  which 
was  rough,  solemn  and  a  trifle  emphatic  in  Aligny's 
drawings  and  in  his  masculine  paintings,  boldly  but 
summarily  modeled,  was  shown  in  Corot's  work,  less 
abruptly,  more  developed,  more  penetrated  with  the 
warmth  of  life — not  of  the  life  which  circulates  in 
each  separate  plant,  marking  its  movement  and  gen- 
eral appearance,  but  of  the  universal  life  which  ex- 
hales mysteriously  through  the  large  colorations  of  all 
nature  when  the  light  animates,  heats,  and  renders  it 
fruitful." 

We  might  add  to  this  masterly  description  the 
human  and  architectural  elements  which  were  rarely 
absent  from  Corot's  pictures.  In  his  Italian  subjects 
the  roofs  of  old  temples  or  castles  peep  over  distant  or 
nearer  hillsides ;  and  in  the  studies  he  painted  during 
his  wanderings  in  France,  the  spires  of  the  village 
churches  or  the  thatches  of  rustic  cottages,  with  aptly 
placed  figures  and  animals,  add  interest  and  charm. 

Corot  spent  many  seasons  at  Ville  d'Avray,  near 
Paris,  where  his  father  had  a  country-house.  His 
somewhat  prosaic  parent  could  not  have  chosen  better, 
and  Corot  passed  long  hours  at  evening  or  dawn  look- 
ing out  of  his  window  on  the  misty  lake  near  by.  The 
fruits  of  these  observations  were  utilized  afterward  in 
many  of  his  famous  pictures.  He  enjoyed  journeying 
through  the  far-away  provinces,  sometimes  going 
north  toward  Arras  and  Douai,  and  again  traveling 
into  the  Limousin  and  Dauphine  country  to  the 
south.  Once  he  visited  Switzerland  and  Holland,  and 
in  1862  went  as  far  as  England,  always  accompanied 

10 


11 


by  his  portfolio  and  paint-box.  As  his  store  of  know- 
ledge increased,  he  gave  freer  rein  to  poetic  senti- 
ments, both  in  choice  of  subjects  and  in  their  manner 
of  treatment.  Yet  he  never  became  satisfied  with  him- 
self. After  nearly  fifty  years  of  constant  labor  he 
said  one  day  to  Daubigny,  ' '  I  am  not  satisfied ;  I  lack 
manual  skill,"  to  which  Daubigny  replied,  "How  's 
that— you  lack  skill  ?  You  put  nothing  on  your  can- 
vas, and  everything  is  there ! ' ' 

Corot's  ideal  always  kept  in  advance  of  what  he 
actually  accomplished,  and  he  remained  a  student  to 
the  end  of  his  life.  His  method  was  synthetic:  he 
painted  the  large  masses  first  and  worked  in  sufficient 
detail  to  explain  and  complete  his  meaning.  In  one 
of  his  sketch-books  he  wrote  during  a  moment  of  self- 
examination:  "I  am  never  in  a  hurry  to  arrive  at 
details ;  the  masses  and  the  character  of  a  picture  in- 
terest me  before  all  else :  .  .  .  when  these  are  well 
established  I  seek  for  the  finer  qualities  of  form  and 
color.  I  return  to  these  unceasingly,  without  being 
stopped  by  anything,  and  without  system."  That  he 
did  not  always  work  in  this  way  is  made  evident  in  the 
monograph  noted  by  Silvestre  where  Corot  speaks  of 
his  earlier  studies.  "I  had  passed  two  winters  with 
Monsieur  Bertin,  learning  so  little  that  soon  after  my 
arrival  at  Borne  I  could  hardly  pull  through  the  slight- 
est drawing.  Two  men  would  stop  to  chat;  I  would 
begin  to  sketch  them  in  parts,  commencing  with  the 
head,  for  example.  Then  they  would  separate  and  I 
had  only  pieces  of  head  on  my  paper.  Some  children 
were  seated  on  the  steps  of  a  church;  I  commenced 
again;  their  mother  called  them.  My  book  was  thus 
filled  with  ends  of  noses,  foreheads  and  locks  of  hair.  I 

12 


13 


then  determined  not  to  return  home  without  a  com- 
pleted work,  and  I  tried  for  the  first  time  to  draw  by 
masses,  rapid  drawing,  the  only  kind  possible.  I  com- 
menced by  circumscribing  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye 
the  first  group  that  came :  if  it  rested  but  a  short  time 
in  place,  I  had  at  least  caught  the  character,  the  gen- 
eral outlines;  if  they  remained  longer,  I  was  able  to 
add  the  details.  I  did  very  many  of  these  exercises 
and  now  find  myself  able  to  catch  in  a  few  lines  the 
ballets  and  decorations  of  the  Opera  on  a  piece  of 
paper  in  the  crown  of  my  hat. ' ' 

Corot's  drawing  was  not  of  the  highly  polished, 
academic  kind,  but  it  was  suited  to  his  manner.  The 
planes,  perspective,  and  important  characteristics 
were  all  carefully  noted,  though  he  never  sacrificed 
the  dominating  sentiment  to  dry  mechanic  precision. 
I  could  never  quite  understand  what  my  friend  Mr. 
P.  G.  Hamerton  meant  when  he  wrote  in  his 
"Thoughts  about  Art":  "The  favorite  landscape- 
painter  among  artists  in  France,  the  one  whose  repu- 
tation has  been  made  by  the  admiration  of  artists, 
Corot,  can  scarcely  draw  better  than  a  school-girl." 
Yet  in  his  "Etching  and  Etchers,"  Mr.  Hamerton 
redeems  this  possible  slip  of  the  pen  by  the  following 
eloquent  appreciation :  ' '  All  sins  are  forgiven  to  the 
true  poets.  .  .  .  He  feels  the  delightfulness  of  cool, 
grey  mornings  and  dewy  evenings;  he  feels  the  pal- 
pitating life  of  gleaming  river-shores  and  the  trem- 
bling of  the  light  branches  wherein  the  fitful  breezes 
play.  He  has  an  intense  sense  of  the  glimmering  in- 
decision and  mystery  of  natural  appearances,  and  he 
does  not,  as  it  seems  to  us,  draw  and  paint  with  preci- 
sion simply  because  his  attention  does  not  fix  itself  on 

14 


SOUVENIR  D'ITALIE 
Size  of  the  original  etching,  1  iy2  X  8%  inches 


15 


that  which  is  precise."  The  late  George  Inness  once 
wrote  that  "  if  a  painter  could  combine  the  poetry  of 
Corot  with  the  precision  in  detail  of  a  Meissonier,  he 
would  be  a  very  god  in  art. ' '  There  are,  however,  in- 
compatibilities in  art,  as  in  nature,  and  the  effort  to 
unite  them  like  acids  and  alkalis  may  only  end  in 
producing  an  insipid  and  uninteresting  neutrality. 

If  Corot  had  felt  that  added  precision  of  detail 
would  have  improved  an  effect,  he  was  too  conscien- 
tious to  have  omitted  it.  His  earlier  studies  are  proofs 
of  this.  But  the  beauty  he  sought  in  his  later  manner 
lay  in  those  phases  where  facts  are  dissolved  as  it  were 
in  the  mystery  of  infinite  suggestion.  His  pictures  are 
not  intended  as  lessons  in  geology,  botany  and  optics ; 
such  interesting  facts  only  furnished  him  elements 
that  were  fused  under  the  heat  of  inspiration  into  a 
new  and  higher  product,  namely,  beauty. 

As  to  Corot 's  figures  and  portraits,  it  is  possible 
they  sometimes  betray  a  lack  of  the  severe  school- 
ing usual  to  French  painters,  who  have  passed  through 
the  ateliers  and  anatomy  classes  of  the  Ecole  des 
Beaux-Arts,  yet  they  possess  a  personal  quality  that 
makes  up  for  occasional  insufficiencies.  An  old 
Parisian  model  who  had  worked  a  great  deal  for  Corot 
once  told  me  that  it  was  the  master's  dearest  am- 
bition to  succeed  as  a  painter  of  figures,  and  that  he 
bestowed  endless  labor  to  this  end.  But  the  wonder  is, 
how  such  a  landscapist  could  succeed  so  well  in  adding 
his  dancing  nymphs  and  piping  shepherds,  so  that  they 
harmonize  perfectly  with  the  sentiment  of  his  subject 
and  the  tones  of  his  masses.  What  Claude  Lorrain 
almost  invariably  hired  another  to  do,  Corot  did  for 
himself. 

16 


ENVIRONS  DE  ROME 
Size  of  the  original  etching,  1  1% 


inches 


17 


In  color,  which  is  more  a  matter  of  temperament 
than  of  education,  Corot  preferred  soft  grays,  pearls 
and  rose-tints  for  the  higher  notes  of  his  chromatic 
scale,  with  browns,  olives  and  blacks  for  the  lowest 
octaves.  Some  of  his  Italian  studies  are  more  positive 
in  their  color-key,  but  to  continue  the  comparison,  his 
tones  resemble  those  of  the  flute,  violin  and  harp, 
rather  than  the  louder  brasses  and  drums. 

His  love  of  music  was  so  great  that  he  was  called  a 
"melomane,"  and  his  fine  voice  often  made  him  wel- 
come when  his  art  was  misunderstood.  His  last  resi- 
dence in  the  rue  Poissoniere  was  chosen  because  of  its 
nearness  to  the  Opera  and  Conservatoire,  where  he 
found  a  perennial  source  of  delight  and  recreation. 
When  in  the  fields,  with  his  friends  the  birds,  he  was 
continually  humming  a  song.  In  the  studio  his  brush 
often  kept  time  to  some  favorite  air,  which  was  thus 
absorbed  and  expressed  in  graphic  form;  and  the 
penetrating  charm  of  many  of  his  pictures  is  because 
they  are  painted  music ! 

Preoccupied  with  tint  and  tone,  the  brush  was  his 
principal  tool,  and  his  drawings  were  made  either  as 
memoranda  or  to  serve  some  purpose  in  present  or 
later  work,  where  careful  analysis  of  line  and  form 
was  needed.  Yet  as  early  as  1822,  when  in  deference 
to  his  father's  wishes  he  was  still  with  Delalain  the 
cloth-merchant,  he  had  done  several  lithographs. 
Two  of  these  subjects,  The  Guard  Dies,  but  Never 
Surrenders,  and  The  Plague  at  Barcelona,  he 
sketched  in  outline  again  with  lithographic  crayon  on 
autographic  paper,  for  his  friend  Alfred  Robaut  in 
1873,  but  none  of  the  original  proofs  of  his  first  stones, 
nor  of  The  Village  Fair,  which  he  remembered  doing 

18 


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about  the  same  time,  have  ever  been  found,  not  even 
at  the  National  Library,  where  Collas  the  publisher, 
who  lived  in  the  Passage  Feydeau,  was.  supposed  to 
have  deposited  the  three  obligatory  copies.  About 
1836  he  did  another  figure-subject  on  stone,  as  a 
cover  for  an  operette,  "La  Caisse  d'Epargne. "  It 
represented  ' '  Madame  Rose  in  the  role  of  Mere  Bois- 
seau,"  and  of  this  Monsieur  Robaut  possessed  an 
example. 

No  further  attempts  were  made  in  either  lithog- 
raphy or  etching  till  about  1845,  when  Charles 
Jacque's  interesting  prints  may  have  suggested  an 
essay  in  etching.  Corot  took  a  prepared  copper-plate 
and  drew  in  the  outlines  and  masses  of  the  well-known 
Souvenir  de  Toscane,  but  did  not  proceed  to  the  "bit- 
ing" process.  Some  years  later  Felix  Bracquemond 
discovered  it  in  a  nail-box  at  Corot 's  studio  and 
begged  the  master  to  complete  it,  offering  to  take 
charge  of  the  ' '  biting  in. ' '  Corot  then  took  the  plate 
and  added  the  tones  and  details  of  the  final  state. 
This  was  his  first  etching  and  he  was  then  in  the  fifties 
of  his  own  life  and  of  his  century.  There  was  some- 
thing in  the  use  of  mordants  and  acids  that  seemed 
to  frighten  Corot,  and  he  always  called  in  some  good 
friend  such  as  Bracquemond,  Michelin  or  Delaunay  to 
assist  in  this  delicate  process. 

Of  the  fourteen  plates  he  etched  one  was  over- 
bitten  and  another,  by  being  spoiled  before  biting,  only 
indicates  the  lines  which  passed  through  the  ground 
into  the  copper.  They  belong  to  the  later  and  best 
period  of  his  art.  It  was  generally  at  the  request  of 
a  friend  or  to  render  some  service  that  he  took  up 
plate  and  needle.  His  second  attempt,  Le  Bateau 

20 


sous  les  Sanies,  shows  the  house  in  the  distance  near 
the  lake  of  Ville  d'Avray  where  the  Corots  lived,  and 
was  intended  to  illustrate  a  book  of  poems  by  his 
friend  Edmond  Roche,  who,  however,  died  before  they 
were  published.  In  1862  a  posthumous  edition  of 
Roche's  poems  was  published,  containing  a  sonnet 
dedicated  to  Corot,  and  for  this  he  etched  a  plate 
known  as  Ville  d'Avray — I' E  tang  au  Batelier,  which 
somewhat  resembles  the  Bateau  sous  les  Sautes  but 
has  a  more  open  foreground  with  a  man  in  a  boat  and 
a  cow  seen  among  the  nearer  rushes. 

In  1863  he  executed  the  deliciously  decorative  Lac 
du  Tyrol,  and  in  1865  and  1866,  the  Paysage  d'ltalie, 
Souvenir  d'ltalie,  Environs  de  Rome  and  Campagne 
Boisee.  His  thoughts  constantly  reverted  to  Italy, 
where  he  had  spent  some  of  his  happiest  years,  and 
which  he  recalled  in  numerous  "souvenirs."  In  these 
he  could  give  full  scope  to  his  sentiment  and  imagina- 
tive powers. 

With  all  his  originality,  he  respected  those  con- 
ventions of  which  the  ages  had  approved,  and, 
whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  he  followed 
Greek  and  Italian  traditions.  This  Hellenic  quality 
pervades  all  his  art,  conveying  a  sense  of  beauty  that 
is  too  often  lacking  in  the  work  of  many  modern 
painters. 

But  to  return  to  his  etchings.  Of  the  four  plates 
etched  about  1869  two  are  of  the  same  subject,  Venus 
coupant  les  Ailes  de  I' Amour, — one  of  the  plates  hav- 
ing been  overbitten  apparently, — and  this  is  Corot 's 
unique  etching  of  a  figure-subject.  The  two  others, 
Dans  les  Dunes — Souvenir  du  Bois  de  la  Haye,  and 
the  Souvenir  des  Fortifications  de  Douai,  both  have 

22 


northern  titles,  though  by  their  composition  and  gen- 
eral appearance  they  seem  as  "classic"  as  the  Dome 
Florentinf  in  which  the  foliage  seems  to  suggest  in- 
completion.  The  nai've  and  almost  bonhomme  man- 
ner of  Corot's  execution  might  deceive  a  superficial 
glance  as  to  the  beauties  his  etchings  reveal  upon  fur- 
ther study.  When  he  had  fixed  the  main  masses  of 
his  compositions  he  would  cross  and  recross  his 
lines  in  searching  for  tone  and  sentiment  until  the 
darkest  notes  reached  the  bare  copper.  His  skies 
and  clouds,  sketched  freely,  convey,  however,  a 
surprising  sense  of  lightness  and  movement.  "What- 
ever the  manner  of  treatment,  seen  from  the  right  dis- 
tance his  best  plates  vibrate  with  decorative  and  poetic 
suggestion.  Corot's  intimate  friend  Alfred  Robaut 
succeeded  in  getting  him  to  try  lithographic  crayon 
and  ink  on  transfer  paper.  He  liked  the  freedom  of 
its  use  and  did  a  number  of  drawings,  some  sixteen  all 
told,  which  show  how  sympathetic  a  method  Corot  had 
found  in  auto-lithography.  A  dozen  of  these  subjects 
were  published  by  the  Lemerciers  in  a  limited  edi- 
tion in  1871  and  have  become  exceedingly  rare.  Of 
others  very  few  proofs  were  taken,  which  is  in  a  sense 
regrettable,  as  Corot's  lithographs  are  as  eloquent  as 
his  paintings. 

Like  Daubigny,  Millet,  Jacque  and  other  artists  of 
his  day,  he  did  a  number  of  cliclies-verres.  The  pro- 
cess was  invented  by  Monsieur  Cuvelier  (pere)  of 
Arras.  A  glass  plate  was  covered  with  a  whitened 
coat  of  opaque  varnish.  This  was  placed  on  a  black 
surface  and  the  drawing  made  with  an  etching-needle 
or  other  pointed  instrument,  which  removed  the  var- 
nish in  the  same  way  and  as  freely  as  the  etching- 

23 


ground  on  a  copper-plate.  From  this  negative  a 
photographic  print  was  made,  which  was  the  exact 
counterpart  of  the  artist's  drawing.  The  method 
seemed  to  please  Corot,  for  he  did  about  sixty-six  of 
these  verres,  some  of  them  careful  compositions,  and 
others,  sketches  of  ideas  or  done  directly  from  nature. 
They  are  executed  frankly,  and  reveal  an  intimate 
side  of  Corot 's  art,  as  he  might  have  chatted  with 
friends,  or  fixed  a  fleeting  vision  in  a  few  expressive 
lines. 

Corot  died  at  Paris,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1875, 
in  his  seventy-ninth  year.  In  reviewing  the  events  of 
his  long  life,  we  are  impressed  by  his  absolute  sin- 
cerity of  purpose,  and  it  is  easy  to  believe  the  many 
legends  and  anecdotes  related  by  friends,  which  will 
perpetuate  the  remembrance  of  his  unfailing  kindness 
and  boundless  generosity.  Such  was  the  man ;  and  the 
longer  we  study  his  art,  the  more  we  feel  the  truth  of 
the  words  written  and  repeated  by  that  most  unspar- 
ing of  critics,  Henri  Eochefort:  "Nothing  is  more 
beautiful  than  a  beautiful  Corot. ' ' 


24 


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